Sept. 23, 1861 - Gen. Kelley pursues Confederates to Romney, WV

Sept. 23, 1861

Gen. Kelley pursues Confederates to Romney

Romney, WV

* Also home to one of the first ever Confederate monuments - Stump is on it (see Feb. 5, 1865)

General B.F. Kelley (4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry)

vs.

77th Virginia Militia

Here's Romney Town Hall - and the former site of the historical marker I drove there to see. That was basically the theme of my visit to Romney, as is too often the case with markers in West Virginia. The contents of one missing sign are archived online and thus reprinted below. 

Romney In The Civil War

Strategic Location on the Turnpike

Romney experienced many troop movements and skirmishes during the course of the war because of its location on the vitally important North Western Turnpike. The road linked Winchester, near the northern end of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, with Parkersburg on the Ohio River. The earliest engagement fought here occurred on [see also] June 13, 1861, when a Federal force under Col. Lewis Wallace stormed the covered bridge and briefly occupied the town. Romney allegedly changed hands about sixty times during the war, sometimes more than once within a twenty-four hour period.

The proximity of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Cumberland, Maryland, and at New Creek Station (present-day Keyser, West Virginia) magnified Romney’s importance. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal also ran near the northern border of Hampshire County across the Potomac River. In addition, the South Branch River Valley’s numerous farms made tempting targets as Union and Confederate forces sought to replenish supplies.

Many residents of Romney and Hampshire County sympathized with the Confederacy during the war because of the county’s strong agricultural ties to the Shenandoah Valley. There also were large farms in the area that utilized slave labor. Romney was caught in the middle: to the north lay Cumberland, a stronghold of Union sympathy, and to the east was Winchester, one of the Confederacy’s northernmost cities. Each city was within a short march of Romney, making the town a target of many scouting actions, foraging expeditions, and positioning maneuvers on the part of both parties.

This country store, right next to town hall, was hiding an extant Civil War marker. Having already noted Lew Wallace's actions here in Romney, this marker is the one used for the date of this entry. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=67937

Grapeshot Among the Pines

"Somehow they found out we were in the woods east of town. They took two cannon up the pike to where the Toll House now stands and fired several rounds of grapeshot among the pines." -John Starnes Memoir

The road passing before you is the Old Northwestern Turnpike (US 50 today). On September 23rd, 1861 a large force under General B.F. Kelley pursued Confederate forces to near this point. Using artillery pieces of the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry they fired at Confederate Forces of the 77th Virginia Militia, hidden in the pine thickets that can be seen on the hills beyond the campus of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Like Napoleon in 1795 Paris when he ordered his troops to give the royalists “a whiff of grape,” the Federal Troop’s goal was to disrupt and disperse the enemy. There is little doubt that the experience of grapeshot left an indelible mark on the memory of John Starnes.

Grapeshot was a highly versatile artillery round designed to make a cannon much like a large shotgun. While the effective range of the smaller projectiles was limited, the close range effects were physically and psychologically horrific.

See March 16, 1863 for more on Fort Mill Ridge 

Another shot of the sign, with the school and the hills in the distance. 

There's more about Romney when Jackson comes in early 1862 and more beyond that...

West View of Romney Va.

Drawing made between 1861 and January 10, 1862 by Alfred R. Waud. (Library of Congress)

we'll be back...

for more Romney in the Civil War